The invention relates to an apparatus for preventing an inadvertent erasure of a cassette tape which is adapted for use in a cassette tape recorder, and more particularly, to such apparatus for use in a tape recorder or transcriber capable of erasing the full tape width or all the tracks during a rapid advance or a rewind operation.
Dictating machines and transcribers principally for office use are already known which have the function of simultaneously erasing the full tape width during a rapid advance or a rewind operation, thus meeting the need for a rapid tape erasure.
On the other hand, tape cassettes are usually provided with a lug or lugs associated with each side of the cassette which can be broken away to permit detection means therefor to prevent an inadvertent erasure of the record on the tape. However, with the above arrangement having the full width erasing capability, the erasure of the full tape width is activated whenever any one of the lugs is left or regardless of the presence or absence of the lugs. This is obviously inconvenient when it is desired to leave the record on one side intact.
In addition, a difficulty is involved in properly arranging an erase head capable of full width erasure with respect to a compact cassette or a miniature cassette, which is sometimes referred to as micro-cassette, because of space and constructional limitations.